Buck Brown, the creator of over 600 cartoons for Playboy magazine including its naughty "Granny" character, died July 2 in a hospital near Chicago from complications following a stroke June 23. He was 71 years old.

Brown was born in Tennessee and he moved to Chicago when his parents separated. He served in the United States Air Force in the mid-'50s, and it was there he first began to be noticed for his cartooning. His first Playboy cartoon was accepted by Hugh Hefner in 1961, and appeared in 1962. His Granny character, supposedly named by a secretary and fan that used to greet the artist when he'd bring work into the office, first appeared in 1966, the same year Brown received his B.F.A.

A veteran of Dollars and Sense, The New YorkerEbony, Ebony Jr., Jet and Esquire in addition his long-running Playboy gig, Brown also enjoyed success as a painter of humorous subjects and images and situation drawn from life. He was an avid golfer both before and after his semi-retirement, and enjoyed a recurring poker game.

He is survived by a wife, a mother, a brother, a sister, a daughter, a son and six grandchildren.